The walls of the Sister Caille Kleibhan Conference Center were lined with people, and the chairs that sat all around the conference room followed suit. There were camera crews and crying babies, but the most important group sat at the center of the room. These are the people who were celebrated Dec. 6, 2018.
They were a group of over 150 people who would become U.S. citizens by the time they left the room.
Judge Beth Hanan stood at the top of the conference center and began the ceremony at 10:30 a.m. with a list of facts.
She said that of everyone in the room, there were 156 people taking part in the naturalization ceremony that day, and of those 156, were 55 countries in which they had all left at one point to be that room.
She listed off the countries one by one and for some countries there were claps or “woo-hoo’s” from isolated voices, but what stood out above them all was one word.
“Mexico,” she said.
And as the largest group raised their hands in unity there were claps and hollers from every corner.
Judge Hanan finished the list of 55 and began speaking to the soon-to-be-citizens about what their new title would mean at the close of the ceremony.
“The allegiance you held from the country from which you came will be destroyed–as if it never existed,” she said.
She assured the group of their new rights and gave personal anecdotes about her family, who immigrated to America from Germany.
She said that in becoming an American citizen she expects they will still feel connected to their home nations, but that they will find ways to incorporate aspects from their ‘previous’ life into the new one.
For her family that meant one day of the week, Sunday, was reserved for speaking only German.
And finally, after her speech, she began the process of officially welcoming the group of people to the nation on which they were standing at the current moment.
“We are enriched by the fact that you have chosen to become our fellow citizen,” she said.
Then began the oath.
During the oath, the group in the middle of the room stood up, with every single person raising their hands and repeating carefully after Judge Hanan who stood facing them at the podium.
Right hands raised, they repeated word-for-word after the judge before them.
They stood up as citizens of 55 different countries, and after citing the Pledge of Allegiance, sat down as citizens of the United States.
The College Student
Smiling and posing for pictures with her mom, Amanda Alfonso-Perez, a 20-year-old student at UW-Milwaukee stood holding her naturalization certificate.
Alfonso-Perez has been in the United States since she was 10-years-old, leaving her home of Cuba for a new life in the United States.
“I remember just crying at the airport,” she said thinking back to her journey to the U.S.
Not only did she have to leave her friends and family, she had to leave the only country she had ever known.
When she first got to the U.S. she arrived in Miami, shocked by how big the buildings were and the experience of staying in her first hotel. This was before she made her way to Wisconsin where her mom had family living.
Alfonso-Perez began the naturalization process in March. It took her one month to get an appointment about her process. Another six months for her interview.
In high school, she had to take the citizen test, preparing her for the moment when she would actually take her naturalization test and become a legal U.S. citizen.
While she had preparation for the test, it was still nerve wracking, as the test would be one of the final hurdles of her naturalization.
Now, her mom was in the middle of her own naturalization process. In a few months, if everything goes as planned, the mother and daughter would be back at another naturalization ceremony, celebrating another new U.S. citizen.
“I felt like a citizen since I was a teenager and I’ve been here so long,” she said. “Now it’s official. It’s a feeling like, ‘I did it!’”
The Pastor
A man and woman made their rounds for pictures in the lobby of windows at the end of the building. The man held a miniature American flag in his hand and promoted his new status as an American citizen with a, “I Registered to Vote Today” sticker secured on his multi-colored suit coat.
Ram Hre has been waiting eight years for this day.
Hre and his wife Mary Thant came to America as refugees from Burma, and today was a big day for the both of them.
“I can’t sleep last night,” said Thant, who expressed excitement for her husband.
The couple lives together on Milwaukee’s south side. Hre is the honorary pastor at Milwaukee Chin Baptiste Church, and when asked how he felt after becoming an American citizen all he could say was,
“Happy.”
Both Hre and Thant still have family in Burma, so they will always be connected to their home country, but from this day forward Hre is to teach his wife everything he learned from the naturalization process so that soon she can become a citizen as well.
Thant secured the smile on her face as she mentioned her upcoming interview to begin the process and join her husband as an American citizen on Dec. 18.